Dry Air Thoughts...Live Update from Dauphin Island

[rockyman]

Just got back from the beach here on Dauphin Island and it's absolutely beautiful...the water is still clear and the waves have picked up a little since yesterday...I live on the thin, thin, thin section of Dauphin Island known as the "West End." My part of the Island is extremely susceptible to storm surge...Isidore 2 years ago dumped 5 feet of beach sand onto the main road...and that storm hit hundreds of miles away...Even lowly Bill last year caused a good bit of havoc...

West Enders here are anxiously watching the Gomex...So even if this isn't the "Big One," it is very important that we all take this storm seriously.

I've been watching the water vapor loops, and I don't think that the small pool of dryer air will be a big deal...the air is not nearly as dry as the type of "dry air intrusion" that we often get in October and November...also, the dry air "channel" to the north has closed off and I look for this dry air to modify somewhat throughout the day...

As for future movement...I don't see this system moving into the TX/LA area...with the approaching shortwave, I'd guess the system will slide north toward LA and then maybe make a last minute turn toward the Mississippi Sound (it seems the LA/MS/AL coast gets a fair number of these wimpy systems--Beryl, Hanna, and Bill come to mind).

[Frank P]

Observation on the Biloxi beach this afternoon are not too exciting right now, some cloud overcast with light southerly winds.... I live right on the beach in Biloxi on hwy 90, so I get a good view of what's going on in the MS sound just looking out my southerly windows.... Don't see that rapid westward GOM motion that dominates the sound when ever a tropical system is south of us... not yet anyway. Back in the late 80s and early 90s my father owned a house on the west end of Dauphin Island... spend many a night on the island.. wonderful place for sure...